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The worst doctors surgery in the whole of Great Britain?
Is my local medical centre the worst doctors surgery in the whole of Great Britain?
A few years ago if you needed an appointment with the GP you could only ever get an appointment 2- 3 weeks ahead. Can you believe that? Honestly it’s true.
Anyway, the practice were complaining about the high number of patients that failed to keep their appointments and wasted the doctors time. (My view was that most people either got better or had died between the time when they made the appointment and the appointed day).
So the system was changed. Now you cannot make an appointment to see the doctor for any day ahead. You must see him on the day you phone for an appointment.
Consequently at 8am every morning the phoneline to the surgery is red hot as all the people phone in desperately trying to get an appointment.
My daughter has been feeling unwell for the last few days so Alison tried to make an appointment for her first thing this morning
She was astonished to discover that the automated system informed her she was in a "queue" with forty (yes 40!!) people ahead of her.
Instead of holding the line for the next hour or so – Alison drove to the clinic to try and make an appointment in person. Only to be told that there were no longer any appointments available that day. When she tried to make an appointment for the next day she was reminded of the policy that patients must phone on the day to make an appointment – in other words call back tommorrow and see if we can fit you in then.
What if my daughter is seriously ill enquired Alison – to be told to take her to accident and emergency at the local hospital.
I still can’t believe that my local practice is run in this way. Is this typical thoughout the country or are we just unlucky to have such an inefficient service?
This is a serious thread by the way – and no I am not making this up. I plan to write to the Surgery and make an official complaint. I’m also thinking about writing to the local papers about this.
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12 Replies
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I think you will see Phill, this is a sorry state of doctors around the uk, I can’t begin to tell you what I think about our’s no one would get a word in all nite !!!!! if I ran our business like they do we would be in the poor house by now 😛
Lynn
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Phill, I think this is a fairly common state of affairs around the UK. Its certainly the same in all the surgeries around here. Although to be fair some of them do let you phone at 9 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. I’m lucky enough to be in a practice that is reasonably flexible and will fit you in if at all possible, but I can well imagine plenty of GP’s that just do their quota.
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Phill, it’s the same here at my local surgery. You cannot book an appointment ahead at all. This is so that they can say most patients are seen the day they call – makes them sound better. Our local surgery is not open until 8.30am which causes problems for some people. My mother in law wanted an appointment, non urgent, but because she left for work before the surgery opened, she couldn’t get an appointment because when she was free to make the call, all appointments for the day were gone and they would not let her book one for the following day, or week or whatever. It’s nonsense.
As for calling NHS24 – thats a bigger joke!take your daughter to A&E and tell them that your local surgery were too busy and too ignorant to see her!
makes you wonder …..
you’re right to be angry.
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It’s all a matter of statistics, the goverment told doctors that it was unacceptable for patients to wait to long to be seen, and would inforce financial penalties to practices that kept people waiting. So you cannot book an apointment because then you would be shown to be kept waiting.
The new system, you can only book an appointment on that day, converts to stats that no one is kept waiting, goverment pats itself on the back because it improved the waiting list to zero, and the practice gets its full monetary allowence, so nothing has changed. If you are genuinly ill, then I’m sure there is no problem, but in a lot of cases (just my opinion) some people are off to the docs if they have a runny nose, or a slight headache,
These are the time wasters, and the ones rhat clog up the system.Peter
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Phil
My surgery is not very far away from yours (mine’s in Bathgate) but it seems to be in a different world.
Appointments can be made up to 3 wks in advance. When I recently had to make one of my very rare visits, I rang on a Wednesday around noon and made an appointment for 8.50am the next day.
While there, I was impressed to see notices saying "if you are kept waiting for more than 20 minutes, let the receptionist know".
The doctors come out of their offices, into the waiting room and ask for their next patients by name – no hiding behind buzzers or having receptionists tell patients when to go in. And hardly anybody in the waiting room.
I was impressed. In fact I think I might write to the practice and tell them how good an experience it was.
Like all businesses – it’s as good as it’s manager.
John
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Last time I was in England I found exactly the same system had been put in place at my old surgery phone on the day you want to come. Apart from the hassle of getting through on the phone (and they would not give appointments at the desk only on the phone) I didnt have a problem with getting a slot. Still was a pain. Here in France its quite different, I can usually get an appointment whenever I want one, to book in advance or go that day. Of course, you have to hand euros over the desk before you leave and if you forget he gets a plastic gun out to remind you! Bit of a nutter but very thorough.
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you are not alone phil.
gone are the days when you arrived – if the que was to long you made your mind up of how ill you were.i still think tho that if you arrive at the hospital on a strecher you will receive the best attention in the world. but thats about it.
chris
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My surgery is great, firstly it is open all day until about 7.30 pm. I am guaranteed to get an appointment the same day.
When the doctor sees you he is friendly, polite and has plenty of time to spend with you.
The big difference? I live in Ireland and we pay for it here!
Hey, but who cares about 35 Euro when it is your kids (or your own) health. There is no charge if you earn below a certain limit
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phil im gona tell you this …you will think im telling porkys just for laughs .a couple of years ago i had to make an appointment for my oldest girl for a really bad skin infection on her arm .Shed put up with it for weeks in the hope that it would go away . We wre down the town anyway so i thought we would just pop in and make an appointment . I was told by the snotty receptionist that she was only able to take appointments by telephone only .I protested ( well thats putting it mildly ) to cut a long story short …i found myself telephoning from my mobile …in the surgery …looking at the receptionist ….how stupid is that .You could here the echo on the phone as i spoke to her 😥
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Must give full praise to our local, small surgery (village 2000 people).
you cannot make an appointment – simply turn up and you will be seen. Morning and late afternoon opening. A nice friendly doctor who also runs a pharmacy in the same building so when you have seen the doctor the medicine is (nearly always) ready to collect on the way out.
Don’t all come to cambridgeshire, he has got problems coping with all the new people moving into the villageKen
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quote kenid:Must give full praise to our local, small surgery (village 2000 people).
you cannot make an appointment – simply turn up and you will be seen. Morning and late afternoon opening. A nice friendly doctor who also runs a pharmacy in the same building so when you have seen the doctor the medicine is (nearly always) ready to collect on the way out.
Don’t all come to cambridgeshire, he has got problems coping with all the new people moving into the villageKen
…your lucky ken …hey i spent two of my happiest years of my childhood in cambridgeshire (67-69) in Raf upwood cambridgeshire ….ahh memories :lol1: :lol1:
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The system here in Iceland is quite good, it is run by the government & a part of our taxes is used. In all districts (about 10) in Reykjavik where I live, there is a healthcenter which hosts GP’s, nurses & small labs and you are assigned to one doctor who is your GP untill he dies (or you for that matter). You can change though if you dont like him/her.
If I want to get an apointment the same day I call around 8am & usually I can but if not I can always go between 4pm & 6pm, just show up & see the next doctor available. If I have a sick baby between 6pm & 10pm I make an apointment to the "babywatch" & always get an apointment same night.
If someone in the family is very sick at nights you can phone & get doctor home, for that you pay around 20-30 Euros.
Sometimes it is hard to get a GP when you "loose" one, then you can get a doctor who is indepentent but with a contract with the government so you dont pay no more the the next guy.
The fee is around 7 Euros a visit.
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